8 Ways to Practice Product Stewardship

This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.

Product stewardship is the process of evaluating the entire lifecycle of the products we buy and use. It involves how they are made, how they arrive at stores, how you use them and what happens to them when you no longer need them. Here are eight easy ways to ensure that you are being a good product steward.

1. Stay Informed

It’s hard to go five minutes these days without hearing about a company making its products greener (think hybrid cars). But there are different levels of green to keep in mind. While a carbon offset is a nice gesture by the company to think of the environment, a change in manufacturing to remove harmful chemicals is probably more meaningful in the long run. Companies play a huge role in product stewardship, but without informed consumers endorsing their efforts it won’t matter.

2. Spend Some Dough

Price is a huge factor when you are shopping, but keep in mind that product stewardship costs everyone money. Companies spend more in manufacturing to produce eco-friendly products, so if you can afford the cost, the environment (and future generations) will thank you.

3. Locate Your Products

Imported cheese from France may taste great, but what is the cost on the environment for it to be shipped to you? Consumer products list where they are from on the package, so take a look at where some of your favorites are from the next time you shop.

An eco-friendly solution is to shop at a farmers market once a month. Products sold here not only take a lower toll on the environment, but they support the local economy.

4. Check the Ingredients

With all of the new diets these days, you are probably already doing this on food products to check for trans fats and carbohydrates. So why not check out the back of all your products, looking for mercury, two chemicals that can wreak havoc on the environment.

5. Reduce Your Packaging

When was the last time you bought a product without some form of paper or plastic packaging? We’ve even immortalized the saying “paper or plastic” for this reason. The reality is that much of this packaging is not recycled and piles up in landfills.

Obviously, you’ll need some form of packaging for every product you buy. However, you can reduce packaging by buying in large quantities instead of individually wrapped products. You can also bring reusable canvas bags (many stores now sell these) shopping so the store will produce less paper and plastic grocery bags.

6. Recycle

It sounds simple, but recycling is a crucial part of product stewardship. In addition to what you can recycle at the curb, many retailers and companies recycle products like recycling options near you using Earth 911.

7. Take Advantage of Take Backs

The take back program is a relatively new phenomenon for companies (mainly electronics) who recognize the effects that improper disposal of their products can have on the environment. It is often offered as a free service to consumers, and is an easy way to clear out some of the storage in your garage.

8. Close the Loop

The recycle symbol has two major purposes: it tells you what can be recycled and also points out what is made of recycled content. While in some cases you may be purchasing recycled content without even knowing it (products like aluminum and glass are made largely of recycled aluminum and glass), lots of products will also point out that either the product itself or packaging is made of recycled content. Buying recycled is how you close the loop; otherwise it becomes less important that it was recycled in the first place.